by Mark Lingane
“My mother used to say we should all respect one another, and Mr. Stephenson wasn’t respecting anyone other than Gavin.”
“Let’s get out of here before he comes after us.” Isaac turned around and the two headed down the stairs.
“Maybe he should have left me in the cells,” Sebastian said.
“The cells?” Isaac spluttered. He paused halfway down the staircase. “What were you doing in the cells? What kind of person are you? Forget it, I don’t want to know.” He continued on his way down the stairs into the food hall.
“I wasn’t in the cells. Well, I was, but not for any illegal reason.” Sebastian paused and rethought his statement. “I hadn’t done anything wrong. I just wanted to get a friend out and things got confused. The guard got upset and wanted to shout.”
“Mr. Floater? You got Mr. Floater angry? That’s a lifetime of grief. There’s a lot about you I’m not sure I want to know. Yet I’m strangely interested to see if things can get any worse.”
“Let’s eat. Things won’t be so bad after that.”
They entered the hustle and bustle of Mrs. Bumblebee’s domain and searched for an empty bench.
Isaac shook his head. “You really have a lot to learn about the food hall.”
18
THE TWO BOYS had survived the lunch ordeal and now rested outside in the schoolyard. Isaac had on a flat cap to shade his eyes and was watching the other boys moping around the area, trying to out-cool each other. Sebastian was leaning against the wall of the building with his eyes closed, enjoying the warmth of the sun.
“How did you know all that stuff about chances of finding the battery?” Isaac said. “Were you good at school?”
“What do you mean good?”
“Did you do well in tests? Get good grades?”
“Tests? Grades? We didn’t have tests. The teacher turned up and said stuff. Some kids listened, some didn’t. I liked to draw dragons. We had some old lady who came in on the first Tuesday afternoon of each month and taught drawing. I liked that. She didn’t like my drawings, though. She wanted us to draw flowers and old naked ladies. I wanted to draw dragons.”
“So you had no tests at all, where they asked you heaps of questions then told you how many you got wrong at the end?”
Sebastian shook his head. “What would that achieve?”
“That’s what I’ve always asked. Your parents go crazy if you get a lot wrong, but I keep trying to tell them that you don’t need to do a lot of tests if you work in a forge.”
“Is that what you want to do?”
“Nah. It’s what my dad wanted me to do. It’s what he did. It’s what his dad did. For generations back. But it’s noisy, dirty and stinking hot.” He drew out the end of the sentence to indicate the intensity of the heat in a smith’s forge. “Thankfully Mom spoke to him, told him there’d be more money with a tesla in the family. I reckon she just didn’t want to wash another set of dirty clothes.”
Isaac turned around and snorted. “Hey, check out the funny-looking guy.”
A tall, familiar-looking man was striding across the far side of the yard. Sebastian gave Isaac a light punch.
“That’s Nikola, dummy.”
Sebastian waved frantically until he caught Nikola’s attention. Nikola slowed then changed direction. He strode up to the boys and smiled. His white hair had been swept back and his brittle blue eyes shone with a deep intensity.
“Nikola, it’s so great to see you.”
“Sebastian, how’s life with the teslas going?”
“To be honest, I’m not having a very good time. Are you sure I should be here with them?”
“Yes, you should. It’s the right place to be.”
“But, well, I’m not sure I fit it. I don’t look like them. They’re not even interested in the stuff they should be interested in, which is interesting. It seems like an ordinary school. If tesla school’s different, why do the other kids act the same as kids in ordinary schools? And what’s so special about Gavin that he gets all this stupid special attention? To me, he doesn’t look any good at all. He’s just some guy with whooshy hair.”
Nikola distractedly scratched his neck. “Yes, Gavin.” He let out a quiet sigh of frustration. “With the hair. Always with the freaking hair.”
He stood for a few moments looking like he was going to say something. In the end, he ran his hand over his chin and shook his head. “Tell you what. Give it to the end of the day and if you still feel the same way come and see me. I have an idea.”
Nikola turned to continue on his way through the school grounds, then seemed to notice Isaac for the first time. He cast him a suspicious look. “What’s your name?”
“Isaac, sir. Isaac Crowner.”
“Not a troublemaker, are you, Crowner?”
“No, Mr. Dandelion, er, Nikola, sir.”
“Hmm. I’m watching you.” He pointed to his eyes with his first two fingers, then at the young boy. Twice. “I’m going to talk to Mr. Stephenson.” He turned and strode away, disappearing into the building.
Sebastian kicked his feet mindlessly against the ground. “Don’t you guys do anything during the lunch break? Everyone’s just lying around.”
“Nope, this is pretty much it. Being a tesla can be draining.”
“Forget this, let’s go out into the street.”
Sebastian got up and made his way over to the main gates. They were closed but unlocked. The metal was cold to the touch, which surprised him as they had been in the sun all morning. He pulled them open just wide enough to squeeze through. He looked back at Isaac and signaled for him to follow.
Isaac came up to the gate but didn’t pass through. “You could get in trouble for going out without permission.”
“Suit yourself,” Sebastian replied.
He turned and made his way down the street. The front of the school building took up the rest of the street up to the intersection. The roadway was small, but busy enough that he could watch the people go by. He wandered down to the intersection and leaned against a streetlight. The sun was glaring so he closed his eyes and listened to snippets of conversation from the passersby. He tuned into a conversation between two familiar voices. It appeared to be coming from above him.
“… but you can’t ignore everyone else. He hasn’t proven himself under pressure. He’s only theory. And I’m not one hundred percent convinced of your calculations.”
“The math is good. You’ll see when the time is right. Until then he needs to be nourished.”
“They all need to be nourished. There might be a rough diamond among them.”
“They’ll all get their chance when the time’s right. If you want them all nourished at the same time then give me some help. I’m doing this on my own.”
“Speaking of rough diamonds, how’s he going?”
“He has attitude.”
“Yes, at least we know where that comes from. Involve him in something. Give me data. Today. I’m not sure this is the right place, but I can’t make any decisions without data.”
Sebastian heard a horse and overburdened cart trundle past. Without opening his eyes he imagined it in his mind: the great old mare dragging the day’s produce to the markets. By the sounds and smell, the horse was carting pigs. He didn’t think much of pigs, and he was sure they didn’t think much of him. Back home, his neighbor killed one a month for food, and he usually had to help out. Another responsibility his mother gave him that ended with him knee-deep in blood and dead bodies, albeit animals rather than humans.
There was a scuffing on the cobbles next to him. He kept his eyes closed, but said, “I’m glad you overcame your nerves.”
“I wasn’t nervous, just cautious. At home I’m not allowed out on my own without my parents.”
He opened his eyes and turned to Isaac. “Welcome to the brave new world.”
Isaac hesitantly looked around at the passing traffic. It was loud, smelly and looked unhygienic. “We should get back. The bell will
be going soon.”
“Gavin’s coming. Let’s go after him.”
“Where?” Isaac looked down the street. His fringe flopped over his eyes.
“He’s just around the corner.”
Several seconds later, Gavin appeared around the corner. A couple of older boys were with him, and from their appearance Sebastian knew they weren’t from the tesla school.
“How did you do that?”
Sebastian shrugged. “Couldn’t you sense him?”
“No,” replied Isaac, his face a mask of disbelief.
“Gavin must be slightly magnetic. All teslas can detect magnetism, right?” Sebastian said.
Isaac gave him a look of suspicion. “Not when it’s that small. Maybe it was just luck that you detected him, like a two-in-three chance or something.”
Sebastian and Isaac followed Gavin and his friends. Gavin hadn’t recognized the younger boys, and all three were laughing among themselves, dragging their feet, cigarettes hanging out the side of the occasional mouth. They gathered in a circle in front of the school gates and huddled together to discuss something, furtively keeping an eye out for any potential eavesdroppers. They ended with a bizarre handshake and split up. Gavin slipped through the gate into the school grounds.
There was a loud clang followed by the scraping of metal. The non-tesla elder boys strolled away and the street became empty.
“Oh no,” said Isaac, “they’ve shut the gate. That’s why it was unlocked, so Gavin could get back in.”
They ran up to the gate and looked in through the grating. They could hear the loud clanging of the bell. If they didn’t get in now, they were going to be late and in a lot of trouble.
Isaac put his arm through the grating and desperately flailed for the bolt securing the gate shut. “They’ve closed the bolt. I can’t reach it,” he cried.
“Step back, I’ll have a go.”
“You’re shorter than me, so your arms are shorter than mine. If I can’t reach it there’s no way you can.”
“Ah, but I know the secret of stretching.”
“What?”
Sebastian did some limbering-up exercises and stretched out his arms, then shook his hands. He reached in and fell hopelessly short. He waggled his fingers. “Am I close?”
Isaac looked at the gap of several inches. “No.”
Sebastian rested his arm then tried again. Isaac was amazed to see Sebastian’s fingertip graze the end of the bolt. Sebastian withdrew his arm and gave it a shake. He put his arm back through the grating.
“I don’t know why, but I always manage to get it on the third go.” He closed his eyes and reached as far as he could. His fingertips wrapped around the end of the bolt. He teased it until he could grasp it cleanly then opened it. “See. It’s all in the stretching.”
Isaac didn’t tell him it wasn’t the stretching that brought the end of the bolt into his fingertips. It was freaky. He had seen the bolt move, as if pulled by an invisible string, or drawn out by a magnet.
19
THE BOYS HURRIED up the stairs and into the classroom. Gavin had just claimed his seat of choice toward the rear of the room, with a clear view out the window into the washing rooms across the street. Isaac spotted a single seat to the right, by the door, and threw himself into it. Mr. Stephenson was writing some impossibly long equation on the board. Isaac did his best to look like he had been sitting in his seat for hours. Sebastian was about to sit when Mr. Stephenson turned around.
“Ah, Sebastian, just in time for an experiment,” said Mr. Stephenson as Sebastian frantically searched for a seat. “Please come to the front.”
Sebastian sighed. There was no way this was going to end well. He slowly made his way through the sniggering boys to the front.
“No need to hurry,” said Mr. Stephenson through an alligator smile.
“I wasn’t intending to,” Sebastian whispered under his breath.
He stood straight in front of Mr. Stephenson, daring him to do his worst, but secretly hoping to be given a caution and told to sit down and be quiet for the rest of the lesson.
Mr. Stephenson waved his hand over the three familiar containers from the morning’s experiment. “Tell me, which of these containers holds the battery?”
“I can’t tell you which one.”
“There’s no shame in being unable to sense these things straightaway. Have a guess. You have a one-in-three chance of being correct, unless you’re not ready to be a tesla, of course.”
“No, I can’t tell you which one because it isn’t in any of them. You’ve got it in …” he closed his eyes and breathed in and felt his head drop down. He opened his eyes to see what he was looking at. “It’s in your right pocket.”
“Did you see me place … turn around and face the back of the class. Close your eyes. You, boy, make sure he doesn’t open them, okay?”
A boy sitting at the front desk nodded nervously. Sebastian turned and faced the far wall. He closed his eyes and let his mind wander. Various sounds of things being slid, things being moved, came from behind him.
In the darkness behind his eyes he could vaguely make out the shapes of the teslas sitting around the room. He recognized the feel of Isaac sitting at the back, a very weak signal, washed out and undefined. There was a brighter one to the rear of the room, obviously Gavin. In comparison to Isaac, Gavin appeared like a ghost, drifting in a spectral breeze. Slicing through the rear of the room was a strong white line. It wound its way uncertainly through the classroom and away into the distance.
“Mr. Stephenson,” Sebastian said. “Are we on an isogon in this city?”
“What?” came the distracted reply. “How should I know?”
“If we were, would it heighten sensitivity to other magnetic fields?”
“Possibly.” Mr. Stephenson paused. “Yes, it should. Which could be one of the reasons Gavin is performing so extraordinarily well.”
There was a final screech of wood on tiles and Mr. Stephenson coughed. “You can turn around now.”
Sebastian spun on the spot and opened his eyes. The sudden glare of the light made him squint.
“Now which one is it in?” Mr. Stephenson said.
Sebastian looked straight ahead. He breathed in and blinked. He turned his head to the right and up. “Behind that green book. Up on the shelf.”
*
By the end of the lesson Mr. Stephenson had calmed down and nearly returned to his normal color. For most of the lesson he had been bright red, had stuttered and stammered, fumbled and cursed. In the end Gavin had performed some minor feats of amazement and Mr. Stephenson had established that normality had returned to the universe. As the boys were leaving he was almost jovial again.
He gave Sebastian instructions on how to get to his place so he could catch up with Melanie. He said it in an unusual way, as if he had been instructed to pass on the message, but Sebastian put it down to stress.
So he found himself sitting beside Melanie atop the tall apartment building in the center of the city, their legs dangling from a ledge three stories up, watching the sun descend to the horizon with Old Benjamin towering above them.
“What happened with you today?” he asked her.
“I went to the doctor’s. They did all kinds of tests and felt sorry for me.”
“Are you still sick?”
“I won’t ever be cured. That’s what the doctors back home said. They tried to tell me that here too, but they couldn’t. They ummed and ahhed among themselves, huddled in some secret circle, then said they had to speak to someone else.”
“But you look better to me now than when we first met.”
“Could be all the excitement boiling my blood.”
“Wouldn’t it be funny if you were the only person who got well by being around me.”
“No, it wouldn’t. I’d rather die than be forced to hang around a ten year old.”
“I’m nearly thirteen, and that’s not a very nice thing to say,” he said, dejected.<
br />
She sighed. “Sorry,” she said grudgingly. “It’s been a long day, and the tests make me feel bad. I sometimes forget there are other people in the world.” She took a sip from her glass. It contained a green liquid. “What about you?” she said in a happier tone.
“I went to school.”
“Hah! Loser.”
“No offence, but I’d rather be in school, even if it was totally stupid. There’s one guy I’m sure you would totally hate. He’s about your age and is the most annoying person I’ve ever met. His name is Gavin.”
“Has he got whooshy hair?” She took another sip.
“Oh, totally. It’s like the whooshiest ever.”
They both laughed. She put her arm around him and gave him a light hug. She wiped away a tear away and gave him a smile. “Death to whooshy hair,” she whispered. Her voice was dry and harsh. She took another sip of her drink.
“What’s with the drink?” he asked.
“Uh, doctor’s orders. Even out here. Anyway, at least it’s something new. They never gave me anything like this back home. Maybe they’re more educated out here.”
They watched the sun setting over the distant mountains.
“Well, it wasn’t the worst day ever. At least no scary monsters attacked us,” she said.
“You know, I think I preferred that. You know where you’re with a big scary monster.”
“Today, Sebastian, I totally agree with you.”
“Maybe we’ll get lucky and spend more time running away from them together. We were a pretty good team.”
Life was a lot simpler when all you had to do was run.
“I’ve known you for three days,” she said, “and you’ve changed everything. I wonder what’ll happen tomorrow. This is the first time in a long time that I’ve looked forward to the sun rising on a new day. How about you?”
“Not much. School sucks, it’s totally boring. I’m in a dorm with a bunch of farting kids and Gavin. Is your place any better?”
“It’s totally lush. It’s my own space. Apart from the cave, I’ve always had to share a room. This is good. It makes me feel free. I asked if I could paint all the walls black, but the old grump said no.”
